@KeepTheJuice21 NBA Playoff Picks - 5/13

It’s about time someone asked the question we’re all thinking… are the Grizzlies better without Ja Morant. No of course they’re not. Jokes aside though, the Grizzlies handle themselves really well without their star, and have now had a healthy sample size of playoff and regular season games to prove it. When your star player is out, everyone has to take more accountability and if the team is only average, that can go bad quickly.

The Grizzlies have a balanced scoring that they’ve proven holds up to the Warriors and in every game with Dillon Brooks, they’ve shown how great their perimeter defenders are. It was the downfall of the 76ers, perimeter defense is essential in today’s NBA and especially against a team like the Warriors. It’s a great matchup that should be close regardless of the location.

It’s a close-out game for the Bucks at home, which the Bucks have shown us over the past few years they’re pretty good at. To digress for a minute, it’s unbelievably impressive what the Bucks and Giannis have done without Khris Middleton in this series. They should be the favorite to win the finals after tonight. Giannis is playing on a completely different level that we haven’t seen since 2018 Lebron. There is no answer for him even against the best defensive team in the NBA. Jrue Holiday is making clutch play after clutch play and has clearly established himself as the man to take a last minute 3. The Bucks have an opportunity to shut the series down and they don’t often waste those.